1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the field of data storage. More particularly, this invention relates to maintaining design information.
2. Background
As technology has advanced, computer systems have become more and more commonplace in a wide variety of home and business environments. One use of such computer systems is for computer aided design (CAD) programs, which allow users to design various products in varying degrees of detail. Although modern CAD programs provide excellent drawing capabilities, their ability to track the design intent of the designer(s) as well as the history of a design are virtually nonexistent.
One solution to this problem is for the user to manually document the design intent and history in a separate text document, such as by using a word processor or text editor. However, this solution does not allow the text document and the corresponding design to be linked. In other words, there is no direct indication in the design of which portions of the design are further discussed in the separate text document.
Solutions to similar problems in other application areas include, for example, the ability provided by some word processors for a user to insert comments into a text document. An indication of where these comments occur within the text is typically displayed to the user (e.g., a comment number or high-lighting of a portion of the text). However, one problem with such comments is that they must accompany the underlying document. That is, there is typically no ability to view the comments separately from the underlying document. Another problem with such comments is that their content is typically only that which is manually entered by the user. That is, there is typically no ability to automatically enter portion(s) of an underlying document into the comments.
Another solution in other application areas includes the ability to link and/or embed documents into a word processing document, generally referred to as "OLE" (object linking and embedding). However, problems similar to those with comments exist with OLE, such as the linking and/or embedding having to be done manually by the user. Similarly, OLE limits a user to inputting only a single representation or view of a document (e.g., the first few cells of data from a spreadsheet) into the word processing document--multiple views are not possible.
Thus, a need exists for an improved way to track design intent and design history.